PCT Terk Lessons – The Trek

The term

It has taken me just over a month to reach a point where I felt ready to write my final publication about my 2025 through the PCT walk.

I give credit to a colleague at work for asking me to feel and collect my thoughts about the term PCT. And in the case, on the walk in general.

The terminal itself from a physical point of view is actually quite small and, at a certain point, disappointing. The 30 miles of Harts Pass consist of many of the incredible features of the northern waterfalls: huge views, sustained increases, alpine lakes, serpente on one track, etc. The terminal and the marker are not found at the top of a pass or inns in a rock outrage overlooking a majestic view. Rather, the location of the real terminal marker is in a clear part of the forest near the low point of a valley. It is a place as mundane as you can choose.

While I feel here writing this blog more than 30 days eliminated to reach the term PCT, I am surprised by the real ‘terminal’ word. Because that is the word I would use?

‘Terminus’ means the end or the end point, and for many hikers it represents the finish line. It is the goal. The marker’s partner at the beginning of the path in the field. Yin to Yang

This year, 2025, he marked the first time that PCT hikers with the right paperwork could not continue north during the 12 km/7 miles from the terminal score to Manning Park in Canada. This year, the score really marked the end of any north trip on the PCT. In fact, being forced to walk the 30 miles back to Harts Pass was a common shelter heard on the path.

Somehow, having to return to Harts Pass was symbolic of the return to life before the path: careers, relationships, routines, etc. Reaching the term was the end of the PCT experience for many: the end of the trip before a return to life before the PCT.

Reaching the terminal is for many Cinderella clock blows at midnight. The fairy tale ends on the scoreboard.

A cross

Now that I have returned in my life without PCT for a month, I have had time to «sit» in my experience on the PCT and ask me what were the true conclusions of my time along the way.

To tell the truth, I will unpack my personal life lessons of PCT for quite some time, but for this blog I wanted to share an observation that I have come to accept.

I have realized that reaching the physical term for me was anti-Climatic because in many ways it was not a term at all.

For me, the end of the path north of the PCT was a «cross». It was not an end at all. To see, I have not wanted to ‘return’ to my life and forms prior to the PCT. Rather, my time on the PCT has made me realize that I have new paths to explore, either professionally, socially.

I did not get to an end when I reached the terminal that August morning. I arrived at a cross.

Returning to Harts Pass was not a return at all. It was simply a new address. One that has no term. Only more path in front of me. I guess it is better to dust off my copy of Dr. Suess «Oh, the places you will go»

Happy paths

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